Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a valuable and increasingly popular, diagnostic technique in clinical applications for noninvasively imaging soft body tissues such as the brain to visualize internal structures and to study neural development.
Functional neuroimaging techniques, including positron emission tomography and functional MRI (fMRI) such as BOLD imaging, are primarily based on qualitative measures, and often require group averages to show any differences in tissue structure or development. If differences are detected, it is often difficult to establish a biological basis and relate such differences to clinical applications. Furthermore, inconveniently long scanning times of one hour or more, complex processing, calculations or interpretation and low-resolution images of qualitative approaches can hamper a reliable and accurate detection of structural changes such as degenerative processes, as it is needed for early detection, prognosis and diagnosis.
Using quantitative tissue properties in neuroimaging and applying them in biophysical tissue models is increasingly important to advancing our ability to study neural development, to differentiate diseased neuronal tissues from typical, disease-free tissues and to understand the structure and function of key pathways in the human brain.
The present invention addresses this need.